B. Inspired

Bugzy has the authoritative, articulate presence that haloes only the best grime MCs. “I paint pictures with words,” he rapped last year, and it’s not a boast. Malone’s canvases reveal parallel worlds of poverty, physical and mental hunger, rage turned inwards and out, lives undervalued and thrown overboard – sink or swim, ride or die. Whether his true-life crime yarns are verifiable to the last word doesn’t matter because every bar is delivered beautifully at confessional pitch, with a preacher’s punch and sprinter’s pace.